Lost and Found
by Abby82
Summary: Missing scene for Crusade For Lois Lane the death of her cousin not only brings unanswered questions but puts her on a collision course with her future


**Lost and Found  
by abby**

spoilers: season 4 premiere 'crusade'  
category: missing scene lois pov  
disclaimer: they don't belong to me, I'm only borrowing them; no money is being made  
summary: for lois lane the death of her cousin not only brings unanswered questions but puts her on a collision course with her future; missing scene for crusade

* * *

"Naked as a jaybird." 

Lois never understood the meaning of that phrase.

_What is a jaybird anyway? Couldn't the originator of the phrase in question have come up with a more fitting simile? After all, what is being naked anyway? It's being nude, bare, stripped, exposed. No where does the image of a bird get conjured up._

And yet, despite the origin of the phrase, it had instantly came to mind when she approached him in that flattened cornfield.

_Naked as a jaybird indeed._

Lois rummages through the contents of her Dad's SUV. Her overnight bags, roadside kits, loose flares and the assorted safety junk the General insists on carrying, make the process of finding one measly blanket difficult. Her tail light blinks incessantly, mocking her, like the seconds of a clock.

_Time's running out Lois. Get this over and done with, get back on the road, and find that __Kent__ guy. Chloe's video diary demands justice from beyond the grave. _

If Chloe's got enough faith in the guy to help find it for her, then Lois is damn sure going to find him. But, frustratingly first, she's got a blanket to find and one stark naked guy to get back to civilization. Speaking of which, Lois pops her head over the side of her vehicle. _Yep, still naked and so amnesia boy continues to stand motionless amongst the clusters of fires._ Patterns of golden light are weaved on his skin.

He cranes his head up towards the night sky. Lightning continues to flash silently in the distance_. If this scenario wasn't so freakish it would actually be quite mesmerizing._ Turning back to the task at hand Lois reaches into a small, obscured space in her trunk and _ah there it is,_ the blanket she knew she'd seen when she set out on her drive towards small town USA. _It's fire engine red, perfect for keeping warm, signaling airborne search and rescue teams, and covering amnesiac, naked guys found in Kansas cornfields. Practicality thy name is __General Sam Lane_

"I got it!" She shouts as she makes her way back to the clearing.

_Yep still naked and still searching the night sky like it holds the secrets to the cosmos._ Lois suddenly screeches to a halt when a stray thought crosses her mind.

_So how exactly are we going to do this? He seems harmless enough but walking into the guy's personal space might set off the axe murderer in him. I for one, would rather not end up like those missing people on one of those old Unsolved Mysteries. Cue Robert Stack stage left. It's not that I can't hold my own against guys twice my size but there's no telling what that lightning strike did to this guy's brain. He could go from mild mannered to psycho faster than I can speed dial on my phone. Of course it doesn't help that my phone got fried in the same lightning strike that set up this comedy of errors._

"So, yeah excuse me? Hey! Eyes over here. Atta boy," Lois smiles tightly when he finally turns around. "Here's the blanket like I said," she says as she tosses it towards him. He catches it but to her great annoyance he just holds it like it's a beach ball.

_Screw it._ Subtlety isn't one of her strong points. Besides, she can handle him. Self-defense is a way of life for her. Lois storms up to him, making sure to keep those eyes of hers firmly planted on the northern hemisphere and snatches the blanket quite easily. She steps behind him and stretches slightly to drape the blanket over his shoulders. With that done, as a pre-emptive strike, Lois reaches for one of his hands and holds the front of the blanket closed in his fist. The gesture draws his attention back to her.

_He's got really nice eyes, too bad he's got bats in his belfry._

"Let's go," she commands leading the way back to her SUV. Once again he proves that he does a really rotten job at following simple directions. He just stands there, staring at her.

_This guy is really testing my patience._

"Have you seen the sign?" He asks, speaking for the first time since asking her identity.

_Just play along Lois._

The scattered fires are beginning to die down and other than the light provided by her headlights the clearing is loosing its otherworldly quality. It's only a matter of minutes before it really starts to get dark and Lois would love to be back on the road by then.

"Not recently no," she answers before quickly turning away.

She reaches the passenger side and pries the door open against the impeding corn stalks. He's a lot closer now but still not quite there. She watches his eyes dance between her, the SUV, and then the night sky behind her almost like he's trying to decide where she fits into this. _I'm the girl that's trying to do a good deed, buddy, and you're not helping_ she almost says but she stifles it for fear of spooking him. _It's not right to leave him out here by himself in his condition. _

"Come on, you won't find your sign standing in the middle of nowhere" she says reassuringly. That seems to do the trick and he closes the distance between them. He's still a little spaced out but a little more malleable than before.

"Let me just...," she grunts as she dislodges her haphazardly folded map from alongside the passenger seat. She tosses several empty convenience store coffee cups towards the back as well as her bag, save the Nicorette, and several loose CD cases. " Lois Lane's MASH unit is now ready for service," she snarks to herself as she backs out of the vehicle and makes way for her passenger.

He blinks once, redirects his attention inside, blinks again and looks back at Lois.

_For someone who's standing there in his birthday suit with nothing but a blanket around his shoulders he's pretty blasé about everything._

_Oh for Heaven's sakes,_ thinks Lois having had enough of the staring contest going on.

"I'd really love to get this show on the road and that would be a whole lot easier if you'd just get in," she finishes off with motioning to the passenger seat. To her great surprise he just gets in without incident. _Interesting_, she closes his door and runs around to her side of the vehicle. Now with both of them snuggly in their seats Lois reverses out of the cornfield and onto Route 8.

* * *

Author's Note: This story is supposed to have a second part but writer's block has kept any progress on it nonexistent. This part can pretty much stand on its own but I really don't want to abandon the second half. Also a big, big thank you to Lisa (bacio83) over at DI for beta'ing this for me. 


End file.
